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Monastic Life, Art and Technology at the Bizere Monastery (Arad County, RO)

Code PN-II-RU-TE-2012-3-0477

Contract no. 51/30.04.2013

PI: Ileana Burnichioiu, PhD

2013-2016; 41 months

Annual Report

January - September 2016

1) Articles published in IDB indexed journals:

No. Title Year Journal ISSN Status Author

1

Jetoanele medievale din

ceramică: utilități cu

multiple dubii de

interpretare

2016 Analele Banatului 1221-678X

Accepted

Adrian Andrei Rusu

2) Books; studies in volumes:

No. Title Year Volume ISBN Status Author

1

Concepts distorted

by Ideologies.

‘Romanian Art’ or

‘Art In Romania’?

2017

Convivium IV.1 Editors:

Xavier Barral i Altet, Ivan

Foletti, Brepols)

978-2-

503-

56607-8

Under

evaluation Ileana Burnichioiu

2

The Medieval

Monuments from

Transylvania in the

20th Century

Romanian

Historiography

2017

Convivium IV.1 Editors:

Xavier Barral i Altet, Ivan

Foletti, Brepols)

978-2-

503-

56607-8

Under

evaluation Adrian Andrei Rusu

2

3

Riverine

monasticism in the

Kingdom of

Hungary. Navigation

on the Lower Mureș

and the Benedictine

abbey of Bizere

2017

Monastic Europe AD 1100-

1700: landscape and

settlement, Brepols

-

Accepted Oana Toda

4

Meeting a medieval

community of Bizere

Monastery: lifestyle,

occupation and

nutritional status

2017

Homines, Funera, Astra 4.

Time and Cause of Death

from Prehistory to Middle

Ages. Proceedings of the

International Symposium on

Funerary Anthropology. 21 –

23 September 2014, ‘1

Decembrie 1918’ University

(Alba Iulia, Romania), Eds. R.

Kogălniceanu, M. Gligor, R.

Curcă, S. Straton, Oxford,

Archaeopress

-

Under

evaluation Luminița Andreica

(Szilagyi)

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Manifestations of

Violence in the

Benedictine Abbey

from Bizere

(Frumuşeni, Arad

County)

2017

Violence in the Ancient and

Medieval World,

Universidade de Lisboa -

Centro de Estudos Clássicos

-

Accepted Adrian Andrei Rusu

3) Papers presented at conferences, symposiums etc.:

No. Authors Title Conference/symposium/workshop/poster

1 Ileana Burnichioiu

East-West Interaction in Medieval Art

and Architecture. The Case of Bizere

Monastery (Romania)

Invited lecture, Center for Eastern

Mediteranean Studies (CEU) & Romanian

Cultural Institute in Budapest, 3th March.

2

Bernadett Bajnóczi, D.

Györkös, V. Mozgai,

M. Szabó, M. Tóth, I.

Burnichioiu

Archaeometric analysis of mosaic

tesserae and a “red marble” decorative

stone from the Bizere monastery (Arad

county, Western Romania)

EMC2016 2nd European Mineralogical

Conference, Rimini - Italy, 11-15 September,

Società Italiana di Mineralogia e Petrologia:

Minerals, rocks and fluids: alphabet and

words of planet Earth.

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ARCHAEOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF MOSAIC TESSERAE AND A ‘RED MARBLE’ DECORATIVE STONE FROM THE BIZERE

MONASTERY (ARAD COUNTY, WESTERN ROMANIA)

Abstract

Bajnóczi B.1, Györkös D.

1*, Mozgai V.

1, Szabó M.

1, Tóth M.

1 &

Burnichioiu, I.

2

1 Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Hungarian Academy of

Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

2 Faculty of History and Philology, University “1 Decembrie 1918” of Alba Iulia, Romania

Keywords: mosaic tesserae, red marble, Bizere monastery

The Medieval Bizere monastery is situated 15 kms from Arad (Western Romania), south of the valley of River Mureş, on

the territory of Frumușeni village. It was founded around the year 1100 and disappeared after the 16th

century. A large

variety of building and decorative materials, including masonry blocks, bricks and mosaic tesserae, were discovered

during the archaeological excavation of the monastery. Most of the mosaic tesserae were found to be dispersed, however,

two surfaces of pavement mosaic, belonging to the basilica of the abbey, were found in situ (Burnichioiu & Rusu, 2006,

2011). In order to assess the material usage for decorative elements, several dispersed mosaic tesserae made of rocks

and ceramics and a ‘red marble’ decorative stone were studied by means of optical and cathodoluminescence

microscopy, X-ray diffraction, electron microprobe and stable isotope analyses. Based on the mineralogical, petrographic

and geochemical characteristics the probable sources (provenance) for the rocks are suggested, whereas the firing

conditions (temperature) of the ceramics are established.

Most of the studied tesserae consist of metamorphic rocks such as white marble, quartzite, greenschist, hornfels and

‘serpentine marble’ (ophicalcite). Magmatic rocks (basalt) and sedimentary rocks (sandstone, limestone and breccia) were

also identified.

Based on the geology of the region we can assume that most of the rocks have local source in the nearby Southern

Apuseni or the Poiana Rusca Mountains. For example, basalt may originate from the Jurassic ophiolitic sequence cropping

out in several quarries in the Southern Apuseni Mountains. A potential source of sandstones (quartzarenite and quartz-

rich arkose) may be the Upper Cretaceous Gosau succession of the same mountains. Moreover, the Mureş Valley, that is

the alluvial pebbles of River Mureş, can be also a possible source for rocks. Some of the white marbles with heteroblastic

and cataclastic/mortar texture most probably originate from the Southern Carpathians (Bucova/Zeicani). The possible

local or distant source of some white marble mosaics and other unique tesserae made of ‘serpentine marble’ and black-

and-white breccia is still to be identified.

The ‘red marble’ decorative stone found at the Bizere site is a bioclastic nodular limestone containing a large amount of

Middle Jurassic Bositra shell fragments. Although a ‘red marble’ deposit exists in the Apuseni Mountains (at

Menyháza/Moneasa), the petrographic and stable isotope characteristics of the studied stone point to a relatively distant

source, the Gerecse Mountains in Hungary.

The ceramics studied are diverse in appearance including grey, red and sandwich-structured mosaic tesserae and a red

brick. All but one was made from clay intentionally tempered with sand, most probably from the River Mureş. The phase

composition of the ceramics suggests a firing temperature of ≤650-700 °C.

Burnichioiu, I. & Rusu, A. A. (2006): Mozaicurile medievale de la Bizere (The medieval mosaics from Bizere). Editura Mega, Cl uj-Napoca,

55 p.

Burnichioiu, I. & Rusu, A. A. (2011): Medieval floor mosaics at Bizere Monastery. A brief survey. Transylvan. Rev. 20/2, 3–13.

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4) Scientific Reports/analyses of laboratory

Brigitta Maria Kürtösi (Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest), The Bizere Blue. Archaeometrical

Investigation of Medieval greyish-blue Mosaic Tesserae from Bizere Monastery, 2016.

5) Permanent exhibition: „Bizere. Monastic life, art and technology”, in Complexul Muzeal

Arad, 2016 (Ileana Burnichioiu, Oana Toda, Adrian Rusu, Sebastian Manolescu, Stefan Wagner).

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6) National and international research internship (libraries, archives, museum collections).

I. Burnichioiu: Arad, Budapesta.

7) Project website: http://diam.uab.ro/index.php?s=10&p=56

(Mădălin Ordean, Ileana Burnichioiu).

8) Project database: http://diam.uab.ro/bizere/guest_free.php?fx=lista_fise_guest

(Oana Toda, Adrian Andrei Rusu, Mădălin Ordean, Sebastian Manolescu).

9) Documentation and inventories of artefacts – Arad Museum

(Ileana Burnichioiu)

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